GAWD, I’m not even sure where to begin…For starters, LWR passed the century mark in intakes by the end of May. There are birds in every conceivable space and more just came in.

Two of the three cardinals were released last week; we have one stubborn holdout, and the brown thrasher also refuses to leave, preferring to hang out with the older one awaiting a molt to grow in new flight feathers.

​The formerly goo-covered mocker was also released.

With one mocker out, four more came in. Two are sibs; the other two are unrelated. The sibs were found in a nest in a car about to be crushed; one of the older nestlings had been fed a crap diet for several days before coming to LWR and was wearing about as much as he apparently ate. One eye was gummed shut; it was caked over one ear; both wrists were covered; he even had a big clump of the stuff on his butt. I didn’t get “before” shots; he needed cleaning ASAP so he could be housed with the younger mockers. But in the photos below you can see the clumps of crap food that came off his little body, along with some feathers—and I wasn’t even pulling on this; I was rolling a damp Q-tip over the mess to gently work it out and still didn't get it all out to begin with.

The fourth mocker is slightly larger than crap food guy; he just came in today and I haven’t had a chance to get photos.

​The scalped mourning dove took a turn for the worse and required euthanasia, as did the poor common ground dove, who’d been found cold and unresponsive three days last week but revived when placed on heat. His feather growth just stopped—it was more in keeping with what I’m used to seeing in woodpecker runts, where they reach a certain level of development and just stop growing.

The puncture-wound dove isn’t looking likely for flight. I was hopeful that no tendons or ligaments had been damaged but she’s in the songbird flight and as yet unable to fly.

A young loon, not yet in breeding plumage, came in; his rescuer was convinced his legs were broken. Nope, loons’ legs are located waaay back on their bodies. They can’t walk at all on land, and they’re such heavy birds they require a water “runway” to even gain flight. This guy was observed for 24 hours after intake and released. He was a happy camper to be back on water!

​Three of the four Carolina wrens are in the flight pen now; the fourth—the starvation victim—sadly died a few hours after last week’s update. Wrens who’re allowed to reach that point of starvation seldom do well long-term but I had hoped he would since he seemed to rebound nicely.

​Late last Sunday a caller said she had what she originally thought was an Eastern meadowlark fledgling that—yep, you guessed it—she’d been feeding for nearly a week and now that he was “trying to fly” she miraculously discovered LWR. That seems to happen a helluva a lot, so excuse me if I’m cynical when someone swears they had NO CLUE until suddenly they’re tired of dealing with the bird or have screwed it up so badly all I can do is end its misery.

This bird, a fledgling orchard oriole, was lucky enough to be at an age where a bad diet did less damage than it would’ve in a nestling. He’s still lighter than I’d like, not from lack of food but I’m afraid his bones aren’t as dense as they should be. In other words, he was on the verge of being another MBD victim. Good nutrition seems to’ve made the difference, though, and Mr. Lightweight is in the songbird flight now, as well.

​Sadly, this adult red belly was most likely cat attacked; its rescuers didn’t see the attack but said there was a free-roaming cat in their neighborhood. The damage to the wing was too severe to repair, so the bird was euthanized.

​This fledgling crow isn’t flying well yet, as is typical of recent fledges. He’s alert, curious and expects to eat some of whatever he sees me feeding other birds, which makes for an interesting diet for him. Luckily, crows are generalists and he’s at the age to start exploring new foods.

​This means he gets the occasional minnow from the heron feedings. Yep, we have a teeninsy heron chick who weighed all of 21g on intake and is up to 29g as of today. This small, we’re all guessing it’s a green heron but until feathers come in, we won’t know for sure. Herons can be challenging, especially one this young, but so far, so good. Fingers crossed.

​Two more brown thrashers, recent fledges, arrived within the past couple of days, as well. One was probably cat-attacked and is on meds; the other was birdnapped from the finder’s yard. Folks, fledglings as a rule don’t fly well. They hop. A lot. They have really short tail feathers and maybe even some “baby fuzz” still on their heads. If you see a bird hopping through your yard screaming for food, watch carefully for a few minutes, and you’ll more than likely see one or more sibs doing the same thing—and parents coming down to feed. If the fledgling is injured or in imminent danger, yes, by all means intervene, rescue and call your nearest songbird rehabber. Otherwise, leave the fledgling with his family!

​The same scenario applies to this juvie mourning dove. A child found it on the ground and assumed it couldn’t fly. By the time the bird had been passed from family member to family member and stuffed in a hoodie, it was so stressed that for 24 hours after intake it refused to even open its eyes. I was honestly beginning to wonder if the poor fellow was blind. So tip number 2: If you do in fact need to rescue a fledgling, DON’T use it for show and tell. Handle it as little as possible. Put it in a cardboard box lined with paper towels or an old T-shirt, place it in a quiet place, and CALL YOUR LOCAL SONGBIRD REHABBER ASAP.

​These purple martins are close to fledging and should be in the flight pen by next week, probably early next week. Apparently both their parents were killed, necessitating intervention.

​The red shoulder and barred owl are still being pains in the arse about eating, partially, I suspect, because they don’t like their digs. I don’t blame them; they’re both at the age to be in the raptor flight, but since the GHOs are out there, it’s officially full until they pass the live prey test—which all three failed with great flair this week.

Unlike songbirds, raptors don’t play well together. They eat each other. So while the songbird flight can have multiple species co-existing in relative peace, the raptor flight can only house one species at a time.

The screech is finally doing some self-feeding, although he still expects some degree of hand-feeding—meaning at this point literally handing him the food and letting him do the rest. He also is pretty much ready for the flight pen…

​If you’ll recall last week I was delighted to report that the youngest GHO, the one with the nasty wrist fracture that we were sure precluded his ever flying, was in fact flying quite well. Below for your viewing pleasure are a couple of clips of him doing just that!

​And finally, the oldest GHO was both hot and peeved with me the other day—I had dared to clean up the leftover rodent bits below his perch to keep ants out of the flight. But all he knew was I was taking his snacking material for later. Sorry, buddy…

How you can know the details of how to properly feed/medicate each of these different birds boggles my mind.

Reply

Laurens Wildlife Rescue

6/5/2016 09:02:27 pm

Hey Pipette, I'm also doing it all on less than 3 hours' sleep a night. The trick is not to think too much about how much I'm doing. If I stop to think about it, I'll collapse into an exhausted heap!

Reply

Anne Golden

6/6/2016 10:23:21 am

The loon's legs are so far behind his body, it looks as though he's evolving into a seal! He is one happy bird. Love the oriole's and the wren's "eyebrows." Enjoy the little crow -- such intelligent and interesting birds. And the screech standing on his dinner doesn't have a clue! Bless you.

Reply

Laurens Wildlife Rescue

6/6/2016 12:40:35 pm

Hey Anne, loons are pretty neat birds. Wish he'd called while I was videoing; I love their call.

Yeah, I call those stray bits of down on pre-fledge and fledgling birds their "old man" tufts.

Crows are highly intelligent; I don't see 'em in rehab often but I enjoy it when I do.

Screech is...well...like his larger "cousins" in the flight pen, all you can say is "bless his heart."

Reply

khpipwatcher Sally

6/7/2016 04:19:15 pm

Wow, just wow! I am riddled with guilt now over 6 hrs, much less 7 or 8 hrs' sleep... Thank you so much for sharing with us all the photos and success as well as horror stories of your remarkable rehabilitation and rescues, which educate (at least US, if not the owners of free-roaming cats and others who 'locate' a rehabber when it's too late :(:( Little heron chick quite the handful (literally) - are they stressy birds? All the beautiful (saved!) little songbirds, so sweet, and crow and redbellies (oh my!), not to mention the trio of OWLS! Love that the young one can fly! And the oldest one's glare is priceless. Such gratitude to you, Vonda :)

Reply

Laurens Wildlife Rescue

6/7/2016 11:48:05 pm

Thanks, kh! Yes, heron chicks are quite stressy and I don't seem to have the "touch" to deal with them, bless their little hearts. I'm beyond delighted that Mr. Wrist Fx can fly, too! He and the middle Stooge like to strafe me when I go into the flight to freshen food and water. Needless to say, I *always* wear a hat... ;)